The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1887-10-26
MEL PING THE BLOODY sHlRTERS.
How the 1sReiormers" are Repienishing The
Republican Arnory.

New Orleans States.
The ugliest feature of the reform campaign
of vituperation, misrepresentation end sian
der is the atrorious attempt Of the reform
ORGANS to constlne the reference OF GoT. NC
Emery at Monroe to the race troubles III
1S74-76 into a confession that the ELECTIONS
in those years were carried by Intimidation
and murder, The PieaYY1''e has as per r,fst
ence to be drawn ~ troll the Cover;
nor's words, and Tuesday 1t charged
that he had specifically and uneGui vocaAiy
declared such to be the fact. And then; :, as
il to overwhelm The Democratic Chief tx
ccutivc OF the, State with both confession u,
his testimony before q Senate subcommittee
in 1876, in which he testified that in the
election Of the preceding November, In winch
Nichols was elected Governor, the negroes
voted the Democratic ticket freely Rnd OF
their own accord.
If Gov. McFnery had made the eorfession
alleged by the Pica?ntne, or II 1t we're the
truth that the Democrats in 1876, or in any
other year, carried the election by Whipping,
torturing and numbering negroes and whate
Radicals, US the picdaat,se is anxious to have
the Northern people believe the Governor ancl
the bulldozers have confessed, The testimony
of Coy. McEnery referred to would certainly
convict him of the. grossest falsehood. put
Gov McEnery made 10 such confession. Not
Sen tence that henttered is susceptible OF ANY
such construction, except by those weak ana
tjmid connsclors who have survived to MS
from those troublons days and who, with the
heel Of the chrpet-bagger and the negro on
their neuks, their State dominated. plundered
and devastated by organized, Ignorant
and brutal opIressurs. turned pale IT the
suggestion of resistance and trembled with
terror when the telegraph flashed the story
that q handful of whites. III some secluded
andunprotectedne ighborhood had driven Oil
or suppressed some negro uprising by force.
The philosophy ard the history Of what is
known ps bulldoZing (and for which Gov.
Nichols, while Governor, and the buLdozers
were holding the State, repeatedly expressed
such horror Of may be put in o nutshell.
the civil or political movement OF the ceuil-
try. The Nicholsites and their organs, head
ed by the Picuya1af, together with the bloody
shirt howlers Of the North; have insisted,
But outside ct those classes, II lB fecog-
nzed and known to have bsen rovoiu-
ton pure and simple. There may, have
been, no doubt there were. exceptional cases
of brutality practiced III those terrible days
under the pretense OF political necessity.
But outside of such rare instances OF out
rage, for which the whites were, not respon-
sible, it is absolutely true that there was not
negro or white Radical murdered or WHIP
ped or coerced into voting al the eiectons.
The bulldoZing movement was revolution,
justified by all the teachings OF patriotism
and history: it was MS much q revolution as
that which led to the decapitation Of Charles
|, or that other one, equally glorious to all
lovers OF Tree government. That resulted
in the establishment of this republic. If
those revolutions were the outcome of resist
ance to political wrongs and expressions,
that in Louisiana from 1874 to 1873 was
the outcome of al attempted wrong tholls-
and times more terrible and odlous, the
domination of the white race end the Cau-
caSian civilization OF the State by the negro
race. The attempt OF the Republican lead
ers, through the agency OF caTpet-baggers
and scalawags, under the protection OF Fed
eral bayonets, TO Afrlcanize Louisiana was
a dastardly effort to turn back here the
the inevitable and terrible but successful
| revolt Of ciyihZa'i lion against the attempted
wrong. This glorious revolt had, in Colfax,
Coushatta, the Fourteenth of September and
But these battles were not fought at the
polls, or on elecsion days. or to control exec
tons. They were fought to suppress direct,
open, palpable, aggressive organizations
and movements OF the negroes and their
the response of Christian and enlightened
men to the ferociou5 war of murder, arson
| and rape. proclaimed against them by ignor-
ant negroes, organized and lnilamed to the
darkest savagery by their white leaders.
We say, and we defy contradiction, that
not one OF these conflicts was fought to carry
an election. or with any reference, on the
part OF the whites, to the results OF elections.
| Ii the effects of these bloody encounters were
| to arouse the negroes to 8 sense OF the
! folly of their course and the vilIainy OF
| their white leaders, and to thus influence
| them, when the elections came, to cast their
| lots and their votes with their white neigh
| bors, EMPLOYERS and friends. SO much the
| for Christianity, for the negro as well as fol
| the white race.
Such was the effect and e~ery man in
| Louisiana, in whose veins the blood of the
| Caucasian tiows. should thank God for The
precious fruits that were thus in time yielded
by those unhappy conflicts Thus when Gov.
McEnery referred to bulldozing as the in.
| strulnentality that saved Louisiana, and tes-
| titled that the elections had not been con-
| troIled by violence and intllGida tioa, he
and he was entirely consistent. Ii his Ian
guage is. to be misconstrued, his meanine
perverted and his motives aspersed for the
meanest political purposes and to repienisE
| the bloody shirt arTnnries at the North with
Islander and utilization to be spewed upon
who chose to resort to such means for such
miserable ends, and not on those who dare
to tell the true history Of the glorious. re.
| dtmptior ct our State. of not one episode OF
which any Louisianian should be ashamed.
| The effect Of the determined revolt of The
white people, termed bHlldoZery, against ne
| gro supremacy. WAS to disorganize the negro
movement against our civilization. Is Gov.
| Nichols, or the Piccyune,>or any man in tho
| State, with any measure of Intelligence.
again be convinced thai they may, with per
feet impunlty, concentrate on the color liDe
and organize a movement for negro BIZ
| prelnacy, that they will do it? that they viii
| find, as they found before, able and unscru
pulous white men to lead them9
The effects of the result of hI1ildozing were
| salutary so long as they lasted, and thei1
effects upon tile colored race should not bt
permitted to vanish. Let the negro feel ant
know, that he is a free man, protected b,
| let him also continue to know that African
ism cannot supplunt the clvihEstion O.
Louisiana. This is all that Gov. McErer,
maintains VIII Gov. Nichollg, or the Pira
27ute, or. any Of the reform leaders take
1 issue with him on this point2